Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...
Josef Newgarden swept the weekend at Iowa. Another Max Verstappen victory in Hungary gave Red Bull its record 12th consecutive grand prix victory. It wasn't weather but brakes that were the story in Stafford Springs. That wasn't the only racing in Connecticut this week. Pocono ruined one of its distinguishing features for a lifeless atrocity of a structure that screams of a collective lack of imagination. Formula One is now on break. Shane van Gisbergen is coming back to America and Brodie Kostecki is joining him. GT World Challenge America has move its Virginia International Raceway round back a month to avoid a clash with the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but it is another 2024 calendar that is on my mind.
How Will IndyCar's 2024 Calendar Look?
Every IndyCar season ends quickly. In one breath, it is the final days of winter and the opening race is taking place in the heat of St. Petersburg. By the time we have completed exhaling, the Indianapolis 500 is behind us and the bottle of milk is empty. As we inhale, the season finale is here and the Astor Cup is being awarded. We aren't even in the midpoint of summer, and yet the season is nearly over.
At this time, it is no longer too early to look ahead, and things are already in motion for a new season. However, there is no clear direction on where the IndyCar schedule is heading.
There is no reason to believe there will not be any changes to the schedule, but concrete information over new or disappearing events remains missing.
What do we know and what do we not?
St. Petersburg has already announced it will take place over the weekend of March 7-10. Long Beach is promoting April 19-21 for its race. Indianapolis Motor Speedway is selling tickets for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis over May 10-11 and the Indianapolis 500 has been confirmed for May 26.
The start of the season appears to be shaping up to look the same. It is the end where there are question marks.
With a new football stadium approved for construction in Nashville on the site where the IndyCar paddock spreads out for the street course race there each summer, any future editions of the race must take place on different course with a paddock and pit area in a different location.
What otherwise would doom and likely kill most street course races does not appear to be endangering Nashville. The event could even grow in stature.
IndyCar CEO Mark Miles has already stated confidence over Nashville remaining on the schedule and the event becoming more ingrained with the downtown area. Not only are we looking at a layout change, but recent buzz has Nashville as the possible location of the 2024 season finale.
Summer will likely look different for IndyCar next year. For starters, it is a Summer Olympic year, and in 2021, IndyCar took a two-week break for the opening and middle Olympic weekends for television partner NBC before returning to competition on the Sunday that overlapped with the closing ceremonies in Tokyo, which happened to be the inaugural Nashville street race.
In 2024, the Summer Olympics will run from Friday July 26 through Sunday August 11. That current window affects two current IndyCar events, the aforementioned Nashville, which could be moved to the season finale position, and the IndyCar-NASCAR combination weekend on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, which could already be in jeopardy as a Goodyear tire test has been scheduled for the NASCAR Cup Series on the IMS oval in the days after next month's race.
One difference between 2021 and 2024 is with the Olympic Games taking place in Paris, the final Sunday of the Olympics likely will not be open to show a race, at least not on network NBC. Does IndyCar's summer break expand to three weeks or will it be forced to squeeze in somewhere and take an even less desirable television window? It must be remember that in 2021 NASCAR also took off two weeks for the Summer Olympics. NASCAR will take two weeks off, but it will not take three. There is room for a mid-afternoon race on August 11, likely broadcasted on USA, but that room is only for one race, and with NASCAR likely taking that window, there is not a place for IndyCar... well, there is Peacock, but that is another story.
Change will come to IndyCar in 2024, it is a matter of what that exactly looks like.
For the moment, it looks like moving pieces around. Milwaukee is still a rumored addition, but there has yet to be any clear indication it is closer to happening. There have been plenty of conversations and photo ops between Roger Penske and Milwaukee officials, but neither side is suggesting the one-mile oval will return to the calendar. We haven't even mentioned the possibility of a race in Argentina, where the sticking point is whether or not the race counts toward the championship or if it will be a postseason exhibition held sometime in autumn 2024.
With the Olympics, where do races fall? With Nashville moving to the finale, where does Laguna Seca go? With the possibility of a Brickyard 400 return, what happens to the second IMS road course date?
Nashville makes sense as the season finale. We do not know what the course will look like nor where it would exactly take place, but it does not sound like it will go far from the heart of the city. It should be noted not far from the current course is the Music City Convention Center. Any course that could possibly include Broadway, the street full of bars and clubs, would be a tremendous coup for the series, especially for a championship event where the culmination should be a massive party.
After over a decade, and frankly probably two decades, of dull finale atmospheres, ending in Nashville would be an atomic burst of energy IndyCar's championship decider has long needed.
Laguna Seca has produced fine races since it returned to the calendar in 2019, but it has never reclaimed the magic of old when it hosted the final race from the 1980s into the 1990s. There are people there, but there is also a lot of empty space that screams "good seats still available" and this is for a season finale, the last chance to see IndyCar this year and the race that in theory decides the champion, the best driver of the season.
Though not fitting for the finale spot, there is a place for Laguna Seca on the IndyCar schedule, and its presence should not be finale-or-bust, and IndyCar likely knows that as well.
IndyCar's current scheduling problem has been the spring gap that has existed for a number of years. Nashville moving the finale spot could allow IndyCar to fill that gap. Instead of tying Laguna Seca to September, moving it to mid-March would bridge IndyCar's transition from winter into spring, and it sounds like we are heading in that direction.
Envision IndyCar starting at St. Petersburg on March 10, 2024, returning to competition at Laguna Seca on March 24 before the schedule picking up as it was run in 2023 with Texas on April 7, Long Beach on April 21 and Barber on April 28.
After the May races in Indianapolis, Detroit can run on June 2 with Road America on June 16. With Independence Day falling on a Thursday, it may make more sense for Mid-Ohio to run on July 7, but that could create a three-consecutive week stretch of races with Toronto on July 14 with the Iowa doubleheader on July 20-21. It would be a monster stretch, but a necessary one and one where the saving grace would be at least two if not three weeks off afterward.
Once the season gets into August is where it becomes more difficult. There is Nashville, Gateway, Portland and the floating IndyCar race that could be the second IMS road course race or a race somewhere else. There will either be four or five available weekends, depending on when the season resumes post-Olympics and if IndyCar still wants to end by the second Sunday in September, which is also the opening Sunday of the NFL season. We should also note Nashville's date likely depends on football season, and it cannot be much later than the second Sunday in September if it can even be that late.
How do you squeeze the races into such a narrow window? How do you fit in a race out west in Portland with three that are all in the Midwest or Central Time Zone?
A post-Olympic gauntlet could be a great way to end the season. Four races in five weeks or four races in four weeks, one final dash to the championship with at least one oval, road course and street course in the mix is a perfect encapsulation of what makes up the IndyCar schedule.
After the pandemic, while other motorsports series have added new events, IndyCar has remained static. The schedule has mostly just recovered to pre-2020 levels. Other than reviving Iowa, IndyCar has not had a Miami or Las Vegas or a Chicago or a North Wilkesboro. Everybody wants IndyCar to do more, to do something exciting, to turn some heads. Unfortunately, that is not in IndyCar's ethos. The series works on a budget and the series doesn't have $50 million to spend on a street course race nor can it add a half-dozen events in a snap.
Stasis is not failure. IndyCar knows its means. We might not like the financial constraints that IndyCar operates within, but it is better than spending the series into extinction, which is very easy to do. With what IndyCar has to offer, it is trying its best. Filling the early spring gap is step one. Finding an energetic season finale is step two. Both can be accomplished without breaking IndyCar's back in 2024.
The schedule is still a wonderful collection of ovals, road courses and street courses. Anytime you focus on what the schedule is not over what it is you are going to be disappointed. We all wish it could be better but that doesn't mean it still isn't great.
Next year may look the same, but that doesn't mean something exciting is not upon us.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Josef Newgarden and Max Verstappen, but did you know...
Dennis Hauger (sprint) and Jack Doohan (feature) split the Formula Two races from Hungary. Gabriele Mini (sprint) and Zak O’Sullivan (feature) split the Formula Three races.
Christian Rasmussen won the Indy Lights race from Iowa, his second victory of the season.
The #23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin of Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas won the IMSA race from Lime Rock Park. The #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin of Roman De Angelis and Marco Sørensen won in GTD.
Denny Hamlin won the NASCAR Cup race from Pocono, his second victory of the season. Austin Hill won the Grand National Series race, his fourth victory of the season. Kyle Busch won the Truck race, his second victory of the season.
Ryan Newman won the SRX race from Stafford.
Kalle Rovanpeä won Rally Estonia, his second victory of the season.
Coming Up This Weekend
Formula One runs the Belgian Grand Prix, the final race before the summer break.
Formula E ends it season with a doubleheader in London.
NASCAR ends July in Richmond.
Supercars will run under the lights at Sydney Motorsports Park.
World Superbike is at Most.
GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup visits the Nürburgring.
SRX travels down to Pulaski County Motorsports Park in Virginia.
